spring

This will either be a boring post about the weather, or an equally boring post about my life, vaguely outlined using the weather as a metaphor, I will see. It is spring, technically and also sort of really. The days are longer promising to get warmer but don't necessarily really, bla bla bla. It promises to get warmer in the next few days. It's not rainig at all now, but it promises to rain. Probably drizzle, the drizzle continues and it never pours, this is the metaphor bit. You see, it was raining, but the pouring never came. Now it promises to not quite pour but, whatever I said in the last post about it raining slightly more substantially than a light shower. Is shower lighter or heavier than light rain, or drizzle? I think I asked that in the last post too. So that, it's sort of promising to do that, again, as it does every so often, and that ,combined with the actual climatical spring, promised or otherwise is giving me a sense of something resembling hope, which will likely come crahing down or at least sliding down when I sit down one day and realise 5 out of 5 and a half promises turned into nothing. Oh well, at least I have this brief moment without which I would be very glum for very long indeed. What I'd really like is more stuff, and better stuff, but sometime the dreams are less fun than they should be when I start actually counting on them happening and when they like, don't, it's a problem. It also makes the reality, stuff I do get much less exciting as it never equals the wild fantasies in my head, which are never really all that wild as, are really good things that are beyond happening to me, at the moment, at least in those quantities. Yeah that's it, the second one, boring combination piece, weather and metaphor for. Hope you got something out of that.

Waiting for a storm.

The forecast says it's coming, and I can feel it. The air is stuffy, then there's a breeze, a couple of raindrops, but it still doesn't come. I wait and wait, put everything on hold, until the inevitable happens but.. I just keep waiting. The atmosphere is heavy, I'm feeling low, lethargic, not knowing whether to wait or go or what to do? 

*whistles*

I mean a literal storm by the way, what you thought it was another clumsy heavy handed overused metaphor? I suppose it could be, it does sort of parallel one's life but really, how often can say the same thing one always says, and in pretty much the same way. And to be honest, I'm beyond caring. I would like to storm to get itself out of its system though, it's freaking the cat out.

I need a desk job.

Somewhere well heated/air conditioned, and comfy, preferably home (and home would have to be made considerably comfy, of course), doing something that's not terribly difficult but still interesting, that is cool and meaningful, and pays really really well for about, er, not too many hours a week. This whole wandering around the city, being outside at the mercy of the elements is not working for me. It seems like yesterday, or at least a few months ago when I was whining incessantly about the heat. Then there was rain, and more heat, and it got cold, then warm again, and windy and.. well now it's cold. Really cold. Being winter that should not be so surprising, but I still have to go out there, wait around, freezing, and then go home without making any money, or worse, stay out for a few more hours as I shiveringly tell a bunch of shivering people stuff about stuff. It's more than slightly vexing. And you'd think this too hot/too cold would only be a small part of it, wouldn't you? You'd think, ok, winter and summer can get cold/hot, but sometimes it's mild and as long as you're dressed appropriately you're fine. Sure there are those extreme temps but only so many days, and then there's spring and autumn, positively lovely for walking! There's rain sometimes but there are umbrellas. You'd think that the far majority of the time it would be within the realm of reasonable walking weather. Well you'd be wrong. Or at least you'd seem wrong. I can't for the life of me understand where autumn and the mild winter and all of that went. It was so bloody hot not so long ago and now it's unbearably cold, like it was when i started next year. What happened to that 80-98% of pleasant walking (as long as you're dressed right for it and I at least, if people on the tour don't always, have the resources to get that right) weather? It doesn't exist, that's what. Maybe there are about 3 days of it but that's it. Three lovely days where you'd choose to go for a walk if you had the time off, otherwise, you'd stay in, watch telly, or maybe go to the pub if it's close enough, but that's it. Unfortunately, I'm stuck out there.

Well..

It's been hot here. You might have experienced something similar to what I have been experiencing if you live anywhere relatively near me, if we're talking a world wide scale. Fucking hot. Oh, and it's the week I've had to work more than usual, you know, work, which for me means walking around outside taking groups which range from kinda small to huge to places which rarely have shade and are not often very near drinkable water to tell them in an informative and entertaining way facts about those places and the buildings and monuments in them along with history and stories related to them. Two of those a day, in fact. Now it's cooled down. I am happy about that.

So I guess it's summer then..

There are places to live that work with summer, or rather, quite hot to really hot weather, or at least are more suited to the weather that is described by most to be "too hot"... this is not one of them. Having no sea, and fewer swimming options than many city/countries/areas and a not short (at least when it's 30+ degrees) walk to the nearest cool-ish area, let alone place where one can get in water, is more than typically unsuited to this sort of weather ie the weather we are experiencing now. oh and.. tour guiding.. in this weather? Not exactly a whole lot of fun. *fans self and stuff*

Oh my.. *fans self*

What does it take to have a nice, warm, sunny with maybe a few lovely fluffy clouds, no rain, but not too hot day? Huh? I mean yeah yesterday was pretty nice and we've had quite a few pretty decent days that even fell on the weekend so far this year, but just what does it take?

It seems that no sooner do you get used to the fact that it's spring/summer and hoping it will stop raining for a while and get just warm enough to hang outside for a bit, that it hits 30 bloody degrees already!

I mean not exactly, but it did that today. In June.. early June! I don't know what this means for the rest of the summer, probably nothing at all, but here we are. And despite, actually maybe because of the fact I come form a place that gets much warmer and for much more of the year, I do whine on and on about it. I'm already carrying on like it's the end of the world while most people are exclaiming on how wonderful it is and isn't this the awesomest weather ever! No, it isn't. It's to hot. I may have mentioned it already.

It's a while since I went on about the weather. On this blog I mean, not in general. Guess it was about time I posted about that again. Happy summer! (those that are experiencing summer that is)

Yep, it's here.

Generally it's a nice thing when spring starts showing up, it gets warmer, trees start blossoming there's green and pink and green everywhere, it's lovely. And sunshine, not only are there more sunny days, but it's sunny for longer, that's awesome.

And then it rains. Then it a blue sky breaks out almost immediately but no sooner do you get done beaming on how quickly it cleared up do dark clouds show up. You walk away from the window and when you come back the sky is black, it's windy and raindrops are falling. 

And it rains, hard. Then it stops, it clears up and is quite nice again for a while. Just a while, a short while. And before you know it rain clouds show up on the horizon again, or more like are right there in your face getting thicker and darker.

You can see where this is going. It's been that kind of day. If nothing else it at least says that the warmer season or spring/summer is here.

It might storm tonight. 

Winter is here..

Been very mild around here, which is nice, well not nice it's not terrible. It has been, for the most part quite dull and grey, except fro when it's sunny which it has been sometimes, but you know.. it gets dark early, and the trees are all bare so, it's still sort of dreary looking out there. It's still not that cold, which does quite please me but this morning I got up.. not sure what time it was, Cooley woke me and was messing around and wouldn't stop so I got up.. first went to er.. you know nature calls and all that, looked out the window and.. it looked just the same as it does every morning. Then about an hour, 2 hours, an hour and a half I'm not sure, later, Erik got up and said.. hey.. there's white stuff out there. And there was, white stuff. Snow it was, kind of a dusting, ie sorta light but still, pretty. It's been snow/raining most of the day so it's still around, though it seems a bit warm for it to stay so we'll see how it looks tomorrow, but I have my dreams of heavy visibility issues inducing snowfalls and piles and piles of snow on the ground and a perfect winter wonderland, whatever the forecast says. I'm looking forward to it.

And the sun goes down.

It's just after 16:00 and the sun has set on that decade of mine that I call the 30s. Some people would say 30's, but I say 30s, deal with it. Never again shall I walk in the sun as a 30 something. *gets all wistful and stuff*

I wasn't going to write about the upcoming changing o age that is coming up, as I've said absolutely everything there is to say about it, and more, numerous times, already, I was going to write about something completely unrelated, like, how on the weather they say it's a certain temperature but feels like another, I mean how can it feel like one thing but really be colder? If it's -1 then whatever that feels like is what feels like -1, and how come it's always lower when it's already cold? If it's -3 degrees, it doesn't have to feel like yet another 3 degrees colder? Of course, when it's 35 degrees, it feels like 38, but anyway, not the point.. as I was saying, temptation of musing on the poignancy of the sun setting on this 30s which is the new 20s and that's at least an 80s 20s so it's more like a late teens to early ish 20s if you're going back to a time when grownups were grownups and it's time for me to to stop goofing about and.. get a mortgage and a couple of grown up kids.. or something... was too much to resist. So I wrote about that. And I have nothing else to say about it now. Finally. See you when I'm 40 ;). 

Freezing Point.

Yesterday, morning the temperature here, at least as reported by one site, was 3 degrees on the celsius scale, that was the official temperature, but apparently it felt like 0. That is zero, no degrees. "Zero!" I cried, "have we hit that point already", I told myself.

The answer was no, because it was 3 degrees.

Then this morning came. I got online, visited the same place, this site that I use most often for getting my weather information and though I'd locked the cat out.. allowing me to sleep in, therefore coming to my weather information just a bit later, there was a big fat 0. Right there in the bit where they tell you the temperature, the actual official one. So if I'd asked myself the same question I asked yesterday then the answer would be "yes". It is that time of year, we've hit that point. Oh and it felt like -3.

I'm not really sure it did feel like -3. It probably wasn't (that is 0 degrees and feeling like -3) by the time I got out but it was damn cold. I went out bareheaded, because I was rushing to meet someone who was late to meet me anyway, and couldn't find my woolly toque (as some call it) in time, and I felt it. Really could have used it, though it was the middle of the day.

It's drizzly, misty, the trees are almost at their winter bare o leaves phase and it's certainly cold enough. Winter is certainly coming, and it's very near. Brace yourself for a long string of boring weather posts for the many months ahead.. assuming I actually keep up with blogging regularly, of course.

Storm away... please

It's been grey, drizzly and gloomy here for.. well, about a week after the spring finally came.. here in this part of the world were I live. Not so much rain, but always the promise. Always the hint of t-storms (as the hip new generation of internet meteorologists like to call them) in the air. But the t-storms don't come. Day after day, they (said hip new meteorologists) say there will be t-storms, but they don't come.. And it's another day of grey, just waiting for the inevitable t-storms to come. If they just came, it would storm and then it would be over. The sun would then peek out behind the clouds, and shine down over a beautiful green world. It would, if the t-storms just showed up.. but no.. instead we get a permanent grey cloud, looming ominously. If you think that's a metaphor well you're likely right. It sounds like one, but it's an imperfect one. When my personal t-storm finally shows up, it will lead, not to a new era of sunshine and butterflies but more likely the continuation of greyness, drizzle.. and possibly more and greater t-storms. Still.. at least I'd know something, which right now, not knowing anything, I think is preferable.

Surprisingly little to grumble about..

right now. So.. well, not much to say, really.

Oh yeah.. it's still cold.

*grumbles about that*
*gets told off for whining and gets told to move somewhere warmer*
*continues grumbling, including the part about getting told off about it*

I was joking.. joking!!!!

Nice little joke I made yesterday on the annual day o fools, the first day of April. Yeah, that site, the one from Science, wasn't real. well is was a real site but it wasn't really from Science.. there isn't going to be a new ice age.. that's ridiculous!

Well.. it seems like they're really saying it.

I mean.. yeah, people, even members of Science get things wrong sometimes, are influenced by the same biases/experiences (ie a really long winter that's getting like, real annoying) like the rest of us. And some of them disagree, well I assume they do because, they're always disagreeing, those Science people. Still, I didn't really want to hear that it's a thing, you know.

Anyway we probably have a few years left of, regular weather, whatever that is, and then I can move to somewhere that's too hot now, but will be just right then, maybe. I should get a head start on buying property, I suppose, if I can scrounge a couple of hundred thousand of one of the larger denomination of currencies together.

In any case, it's April. This was your last chance weather gods! I can't think of another milestone for spring to finally be here by and if you can think of one email it to me and I'll give you another chance but I'm telling you I'm extremely grumpy about all this! That and I have the sniffles. Do something about it already!

I give you to tomorrow.

It's cold again, actually snowing, or it was I don't know if it still is I closed the blind so I wouldn't have to look at the greyness and falling snow and people in big fat puffy jackets and yes, we have a whole extra hour of daylight to enjoy it woop e doo.

Tomorrow is April. If by April there hasn't been a major change I'll.. I'll. I'll just.. be very very grumpy.

Oh and Happy Easter. Or whatever.

Ok one more chance.

It's still cold. It may not be as much as it was, and the recent snow might have melted, and the forecasted snow will likely melt pretty quickly too, and it was somewhat sunny today but.. it's still cold. It was 5 and felt like 3.. then 6 and felt like 3.. now it's 4. Feels like 1. Don't get me started on the whole "feels like" phenomena.. I mean, if it is a certain temperature then THAT IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE! And how come it always feels like less than the temperature is huh? And always a few degrees huh? And why is it when it's ALREADY WAY TOO FUCKING COLD LIKE -5 DURING THE DAY THE GAP IS THE MOST LIKE 7 DEGREES COLDER IT'S NOT LIKE WE CAN AFFORD IT TO FEEL LIKE 7 DEGREES BELOW -12 YOU KNOW!!!! Which is what it was like a week ago, or thereabouts.

So it's better than a week ago.. and than a few days ago but still. it keeps on being wintry. It's late fucking March for fucks sake! We've had accusations lobbed at cute rodents, people defending said rodent taking the blame for themselves, including one which you read on this very site, explanations here and there for why this was occurring how it was.. we've had the official first day of spring, we had Future Shorts Winter Screening, finally.. and that's all wrapped up, the movies voted on, a winner declared, the venue turned back to a theatre and all the cigarette butts and empty glasses cleaned away..

And today is the last day of.. er, normal time? Tomorrow is the beginning of daylight savings. Yes, this time tomorrow it will be an hour earlier.. er, later? No earlier than it is. The days will be longer (well not really, I mean it will be a couple of minutes but there'll be an hour off the daylight in the morning which won't make that much difference to people who don't get up before 6am, though Cooley mightn't be woken up by the sunlight so it's probably another boon for us) and we'll get that sunlight still around after 7. It'll be nice, I suppose, even if there's not much to look at, seeing as NOTHING HAS BLOOMED YET, and if the sun doesn't shine then, well. but it is nice don't get me wrong.. I like the old daylight savings time.

So back to the point. This is your last chance weather gods. If spring doesn't come, and I mean come properly.. be WARM, actually warm (ish) and flowers come out and stuff, once the time change happens.. I just don't know how we can continue this relationship.

Leave Phil Alone!

punxsutawney phil
Originally uploaded by ewaldmario.

The current ongoing winter in much of the Northern Hemisphere has caused millions to cry out for a scapegoat, and they have found it in lovable rodent and well known meteorologist Punxsutawney Phil.

It dates all the way back to February 2nd of this year, Groundhog Day, where Phil, in his infinite wisdom, declared that there would be an early spring this year, after emerging from his grounhog hole, and not seeing his shadow.

Well, anyone living "literally" anywhere on earth, that is the Northern Hemisphere and particularly places that get cold at all, know this to be utter bunk. Nevermind early spring, it's March 26 already.. 6 days into official full on spring and well.. I may have mentioned this myself once or twice but... it's cold. And people are enraged! They're saying Phil maliciously and deliberately deceived people. They're calling for his head!

I for one, however, do not blame Phil. Phil is but merely an adorable burrow dwelling squirrel hedgehog or whatever he is, and he did what he was told to do, see his shadow or not, and deduce the facts from the evidence he found. There was no shadow.. so he said it's spring! A simple mistake. Or was it...

This is what happened. Phil did not see his shadow. This was not a mistake of Phil's, or the conditions at the time, just bear with me.. I will explain.

Back in late February, I went to Eilat in Southern Israel. It's a very warm place, you may imagine, like summer.. even in the (we thought then) dying days of winter. Oh what a beautiful week it was, after a long enough already winter, it was like paradise to lie by the beach with the hot sun upon our backs, but of course, all holidays must come to an end, and after a week we had to return to Prague where it was still winter. I did not let it get me down though, do not mope, I said, the day after we return it's March, and spring will soon follow.. the days will get longer, warmer, buds will blossom, birds will sing... etc etc etc.. and I said it again and again and again.

Needless to say, I was mistaken. And that is not all.. you see, young Phil, our furry friend, was merely doing a job, he reported what he saw.. and at the time, I believe he was correct. He did no wrong. I however, did what any human over the age of 6 should know well better than to do. I tempted fate. To wish and hope and be so fucking sure.. and vocalize one's idea of the future should be? Utterly irresponsible. You see, fate hates it when smug knowitall humans talk like they know what's fucking going on.. and fate, total asshole. It wasn't enough to fuck up the weather here in the little part of central Europe that I inhabit, or even all of Europe.. but all of the fucking Northern Hemisphere*.

So don't blame Phil, blame me, for, in my foolishness are the cause of all of this. The worst part of it is knowing that those people are suffering is because of me,  that Phil is getting persecuted over something that is my fault.. and that if no one else does, I deserve all of this, and more, fully.

Leave Phil alone. Take me.

O and by the way..

it's cold. Really really cold. Super fucking cold. Stupidly, annoyingly, fuckeduply seriously cold. In late March. Spring, it should be, spring! I mean I had (not really in fact not at all by any stretch of the imagination) vowed to stop blathering on about the weather but.. it's just life. It's what people do, people here, where it's freezing, people in and from places that are visiting here.. there it's also cold, and raining, and grey, people on the internet, it's snowing there, and it isn't stopping.. so, it seems to be everywhere.. "literally" everywhere, well in the part of the northern hemisphere that get weather anyway. So, yeah, it was crappy as it was, winter lingering on and on and on, and we get to a weekend and what does it do? It drops temperature... to the minuses, and not just the minus ones and twos.. it's more sixes.. and if that's not enough.. we have the whole "feels like". What the fuck is the fucking feels like all about? If it feels like a temperature it is that temperature! Or is it is a temperature then that is what it feels like.. *scratches head* either way, it's either both or either. I think. And yes, it feels like less than it is, always, usually a degree or 3 but yesterday, and today it "felt like" about 7 degrees less than it was.. when you're already at -8.. you really can't afford that. And to really add insult to injury it's been sunny. Yes, I know that's usually good but it's (or it would be if it wasn't always like this) horribly deceptive.. or, it finally looks like something you want to go out in, but it like.. isn't. Did go out yesterday. For a thing, to meet and talk to people and eat lots of food. That was really good, the getting there was a bit annoying because there was a change of transport, a wait in between because our tram was late and we just missed our bus.. and of course this person lives on a weird street that round the bend in an area that is stingy with it's street signs.. and yes it was only an extra 5 minutes we were walking about, but at that temperature, and particularly at the temperature it felt like.. it's enough. Home was even more fun. It was about 11pm so.. of course.. well anyway. That's all. It's cold, and I want it to warm up. I cannot stress this enough, and if it doesn't you'll be hearing from me about it again.

When you've got nothing to talk about..

You talk about the weather. Hence this being something that could very appropriately called "The Weather Blog" when it's not the "me rambling about stuff that's bothering me and stuff in general without giving details.. often including references to the weather". Well, the thing is, everyone does, all the time. particularly when there is weather. There's always some kind of weather, I hear you say.. but no, not really. Sometimes it just.. is, it's quite nice, not too hot, maybe a bit cloudy but pleasant, and how it has been for a while and how it's supposed to be for the time of year in the place you're in. It's when it's all wiggy that you can't help talking about it. Like now. It's spring, it's been officially spring for 2 days and March for 22. Easter, that spring festival with a side of death worship is coming up and well.. IT'S BLOODY COLD!!! Yes, I've been saying this forever, and it has been, and then it kinda warmed up but not to warm, or anything near it, and it snowed, and then it melted and it snowed again, and then it snained (something between snow and rain) and some of it stayed and then it went etc etc etc. It was coasting along at crappy weather for this time of year.. ie SPRING but much like or even slightly nicer than it had been. Then the temperature dropped. It's even colder now. I'm not pleased. I did not order this.

18 hours to the sun

It's rather dull and overcast out there, got that white sky that you get when it's snowing/been snowing and there's a light cover of snow on grass and roofs, you know the kind of half melted away kind, not the fluffy thick one that stays in the trees and makes everything beautiful, but just makes everything look cold. And slippery. The temperature is -2, but it feels like -7, apparently. Why am I telling you this? Well, this plans to go on for some time, at least for another few weeks, this cold and general slippery conditions but some time tomorrow, well the day after tomorrow technically just after midnight, I'll be in the sun. Well it won't be sunny because it'll be 3 in the morning but it'll be warm, nevertheless. And then when the sun comes up it will be sunny. It's cos of that trip, the one I've been talking about.. flight leaves in just 18 hours, well a bit under that now. So 2 days from now I'll be somewhere warm, not quite lying on the beach yet because we'll still have to make our way to Eilat, but, we won't be sitting by a window with light rain/snow falling outside.

Too hot too cold.

Would you rather it be too hot or too cold?

Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.. in any case, there's only one answer to that, Does't matter, if it's too anything it's rubbish. All other answers are wrong. 

Having said that, I'd prefer it be too cold. If it's too cold, you can rug up, heat up, do exercises. If it's too hot what can you do? If you're in the coolest place, and naked all you can do is get into water. That's it. 

Of course, it depends how much hotter or colder than the ideal it is, and if you have access to the necessary refreshments, so, it's kind of, well.. a rubbish argument. 

I speak of this because today in Sydney was the hottest day on record, apparently, 45.6° C. I would not enjoy that at all. And here it's like, cold, -7 and everything covered in snow and do you hear me complaining?

Well.. I don't have to go outside, at the moment anyway, and don't need to walk people around the city this evening, and well if it was like the last days of doing said job, I would be complaining. A lot.

If I lived somewhere that it gets regularly that cold and colder, and didn't well, live in a place that actually does have a few ridiculously hot days in summer, and visit a place sorta regularly that is quite hot, and come from a place that is known to be hot, and is currently stupidly, and certainly horribly uncomfortably hot, I might feel differently.

Oh and if it wasn't all covered in snow and pretty outside.. I might feel differently right now, being winter and all.